Kendrick Farris, Carissa Gump, Chad Vaughn To Be Inducted Into USA Weightlifting Hall Of Fame

(L-R) Kendrick Farris, Carissa Gump and Chad Vaughn compete at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008.

 

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Weightlifting is proud to announce Kendrick Farris, Carissa Gump and Chad Vaughn as the athletes selected to the USA Weightlifting Hall of Fame Class of 2022. Along with two contributors, who will be determined in January, they will be inducted during the 2022 USA Weightlifting Nationals Week, June 25-July 3, in Las Vegas.

The three, who all happen to be 2008 Olympians, are decorated national and international competitors who have dedicated decades of their lives to the sport. They will join a group of 80-plus athletes already enshrined in the USA Weightlifting Hall of Fame that includes their idols and peers.

Of the six-member 2008 U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Team, two athletes were already inducted: Cheryl Haworth (Class of 2015) and Natalie Burgener (Class of 2020).

Leading the Class of 2022 in Olympic appearances with three, Farris will become the first athlete from both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams to enter the Hall of Fame. The Louisiana native is one of just eight U.S. men to compete at three or more Olympic Games, having made every team from 2008-2016. His best Olympic result is sixth place in the men’s 85kg in his debut at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008.

Farris, 35, competed at three Pan American Games from 2007-2015; he earned bronze in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2011 and gold in Toronto in 2015, becoming the first U.S. men’s middle-heavyweight Pan American Games champion in 40 years. He also won the 2010 Pan American Championships and took silver at the 2013 Summer Universiade.

He still holds four American university records, as well as four senior American records in old body weight categories.

Farris helped induct his longtime coach, Dr. Kyle Pierce, into the USA Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 2017.

The father of two was named an Athlete Role Model for the Summer Youth Olympic Games Nanjing 2014.

Gump took up weightlifting at 12 years old, thanks to the astute observations of her sixth-grade physical education teacher, Chris Polakowski. Her first competition was in December 1996 and just over four years later, Gump (née Gordon) was invited to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Then Gordon, she earned junior world championship bronze medals in clean and jerk and total at 58kg in both 2001 and 2002.

She spent almost nine years as a resident athlete at the OTC, during which she won five consecutive American Opens, made the 2008 Olympic team, four world championships teams, two junior world teams, two Pan American Championships teams and the 2003 Pan American Games team. Though she finished just off the podium in fourth at those Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, the highlight of that trip for Gump was likely meeting fellow weightlifter Jason Gump; they have been married since 2006 and are now raising two kids.

The Vermont native placed 13th at 63kg in Beijing, where she became one of the first seven U.S. women to compete in the sport at the Olympic Games.

Gump, now 38, has continued to contribute to the sport post-retirement, first working for the United States Olympic Committee and then spending five-plus years in the USA Weightlifting national office, helping transform the organization’s fundraising, membership, sponsorship, marketing and communications operations. She currently serves as the National Strength and Conditioning Association Foundation executive director, a role she has held since 2018.

Vaughn began lifting competitively at age 18 and went on to have a slew of success in a career that has yet to end. Most notably, he competed at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, placing 18th in the 77kg in 2004. Vaughn is the final member of that five-athlete 2004 U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Team to be named to the Hall of Fame, joining Oscar Chaplin III (Class of 2016), Shane Hamman (Class of 2011), Haworth and Tara Nott-Cunningham (Class of 2011).

Making three Pan American Games teams, Vaughn won the 77kg gold at the 2003 Santo Domingo Games, becoming the first U.S. men’s middleweight champion in 32 years, and then earned bronze eight years later in Guadalajara. In that same 2003-2011 period, Vaughn made all six world championships teams he tried for, finishing as high as 12th in 2006, plus six Pan American Championships teams.

Now 41, Vaughn won nine U.S. senior national titles before becoming one of the top masters athletes in the world. He currently holds American and world masters records and won the 2019 world title in the 35-39-year age group.

Vaughn is a certified USA Weightlifting and CrossFit coach, and he and wife Jodi run Vaughn Weightlifting in Belton, Texas. He also cohosts “USA Weightlifting: The Podcast” with Olympic and world bronze medalist Haworth.